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rpmdrake - thoughts and suggestions


viking777
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I must say that the new version of rpmdrake is a big improvement on the 2008.0 version, I particularly like the alphabetical listing that it starts up with, and also the fact that you can use this to search with by just typing the initial letters of your query. However to my mind it still has a couple of problems that need sorting out.

 

I appreciate that by default it downloads synthesis files in order to save time and this is definitely a good idea. What is not a good idea though is that it retrieves the 'full' files whenever you click on a package that doesn't have information already. The problem with this is that you do not always click on a package because you want to know more about it. For instance, yesterday I wanted to remove a redundant package. Before I could do so I had to wait whilst it retrieved the extra information not included in the 'synthesis' package. This hardly makes any sense when all I want to do is delete it. Another occasion when it doesn't make sense is when using the search technique I described in the previous paragraph (which incidentally is far faster than using the search function). When you click on an item to focus the alphabetical search function, rpmdrake runs away and downloads the extra information for the package you clicked on, but probably have absolutely no interest in, which is just a little crazy.

 

Why cant we just have a 'get info' button somewhere on the gui that will retrieve information for packages you have highlighted when you want to read it. This makes much more sense to me and I don't think it would be that difficult to implement.

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The proper way to handle this issue, in my opinion, would be for rpmdrake to trigger the download when the package is clicked on, IF the network is up, in background. The complete information would show when/if the extra information is available, else just minimal information would show.

 

Yves.

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You might want to bring this up with Mandriva directly, since we are unofficial Mandriva forum we can't really make these type of changes. But you could request it from their page at mandriva.com. Not sure where, but I'm sure there is a contact address for it. Don't think bug report would benefit this, as it's not a bug as such, but the way they've implemented it.

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There is no big file (hdlist.cz) anymore. Mandriva is using a new XML based file format in 2008 Spring which is a way smaller than hdlist was. There should be an option in the GUI which sets up whether to download the info or not.

When I saw this new feature in one of the betas it only downloaded the extra info when I clicked on "file list" or "description" etc drop-down lists.

You have to ask for enhancements in Bugzilla just when you choose severity choose enhancement.

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There is no big file (hdlist.cz) anymore. Mandriva is using a new XML based file format in 2008 Spring which is a way smaller than hdlist was.
Wow, that sounds like a wonderful, long-overdue enhancement :)

It would be nice to be able to get the info for a single package rather than download the details for them all, but I'll take a (hopefully zipped) smaller format :thumbs:

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The proper way to handle this issue, in my opinion, would be for rpmdrake to trigger the download when the package is clicked on, IF the network is up, in background. The complete information would show when/if the extra information is available, else just minimal information would show.

 

Yves.

 

As far as I can see that is the way it is working, although I don't think that is the way it should work for the reasons I stated earlier.

 

Correction. I notice you put 'in background' in large font which it certainly doesn't do at the moment

Edited by viking777
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There is no big file (hdlist.cz) anymore. Mandriva is using a new XML based file format in 2008 Spring which is a way smaller than hdlist was. There should be an option in the GUI which sets up whether to download the info or not.

When I saw this new feature in one of the betas it only downloaded the extra info when I clicked on "file list" or "description" etc drop-down lists.

You have to ask for enhancements in Bugzilla just when you choose severity choose enhancement.

 

Thanks for putting me right on that point Dexter that must be why it is so much faster then.

 

If there is an option in the GUI to download or not then I can't find it.

 

I can't really justify putting it on Bugzilla when it works much better than it did before!

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You might want to bring this up with Mandriva directly, since we are unofficial Mandriva forum we can't really make these type of changes. But you could request it from their page at mandriva.com. Not sure where, but I'm sure there is a contact address for it. Don't think bug report would benefit this, as it's not a bug as such, but the way they've implemented it.

 

 

You are probably right Ian, although to be brutally honest I don't find the mandriva.com site to be much use to me when 90% of the answers to searches etc. come up in a language that I can't read even though I select English as my forum language. That is why I am here.

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If there is an option in the GUI to download or not then I can't find it.

 

Media Manager /Options/Global Options

 

 

If you want to report a bug or ask for an enhancement:

 

https://qa.mandriva.com/index.cgi

 

Bugzilla reports and comments are entirely in English

 

Jim

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Thanks very much for that info Jim. I would never have looked for it there. Foolish of me I suppose but I would have expected to find it somewhere on the page to which it relates ie. 'Install and Remove Software'. Anyhow, it still doesn't help me because the option that I want - 'On Demand' - is the default and that is what I was complaining about in the first place. I click on a package to uninstall it and the first thing it does is to download extra information about the package that I no longer want. This is simply wrong.

 

I'll give it some time before reporting it on Bugzilla - I am sure sooner or later somebody will see sense without me hassling them.

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